AI is forcing consultants to make the biggest talent overhaul in history.
As companies move from slide decks and advisory work to multi-year, AI-driven transformation projects, the profile of the ideal consultant at companies like Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and PwC is also changing.
“Going to a client and purely proposing an army of consultants doesn't really work anymore,” Gert De Geyter, former head of AI at Deloitte US, told Business Insider.
De Geyter, who left the company in July to join AI startup Teragonia, said companies are now looking for a mix of “generalists and technical experts” instead of “pure traditional consultants.”
Business Insider spoke to nine executives and industry insiders to understand their consulting practices. Companies are hiring, retraining, and redefining their workforces for this moment.
Good time to become an engineer
The work of consultants is also changing. Simple advisory projects are being replaced by building, implementing, and maintaining tools for enterprises, which require technology expertise rather than research skills.
Recruitment data reveals how aggressively top companies are expanding their ranks of engineers. Accenture added about 40,000 AI and data professionals in the past two years, according to its latest annual report. They currently make up about 10% of the world's workforce. EY has added 61,000 technicians since 2023, according to its latest annual report.
AI engineer is the fastest-growing non-entry level job at McKinsey, followed by procurement director, data scientist and software engineer, according to workforce intelligence firm Revelio Labs.
At Boston Consulting Group, Software Engineer, Front-End Developer, and Python Developer are the fastest growing entry-level roles.
BCG, which hired 1,000 employees last year, has been ramping up its hiring of engineers since launching its technology and AI division, BCG X, at the end of 2022.
“We're essentially building a technology company within a consulting company,” said Sylvain Duranton, global leader at BCG
Regular consulting department We are adopting a more technology-centric mindset.
BCG partner and managing director Scott Wilder told Business Insider that a new team called “forward deployment consultants” is growing. that Wilder said he draws inspiration from the software engineering role popularized by Palantir.
These consultants are said to be doing vibe coding and building tools for their clients' projects. Once one of these tools is a hit, it goes back to the R&D team and becomes a broader tool for everyone to use.
movement between worlds
For companies like McKinsey and BCG, the people they need in the AI era are not pure engineers or pure consultants, but people who can straddle both worlds.
“What we want to be able to do is find people who actually have the inclination to be either these great McKinsey consultants or great technologists, and develop them to be both,” Alex Singla, a senior partner at McKinsey and co-leader of the AI division Quantum Black, told Business Insider.
He added that candidates also want hybrid roles. Many candidates don't want to spend years developing products for cloud companies like AWS or become traditional consultants.
McKinsey's AI efforts account for 40% of the firm's business. Davide Bonaldo/SOPA Images/LightRocket, Getty Images
Singla said McKinsey is looking for “5Xers – people who are deeply dedicated to one thing, but can do three or four different things very well.”
QuantumBlack has a team of 1,700 people and drives all of McKinsey's AI initiatives, which account for 40% of the company's work, but Singla said McKinsey's technical talent is not limited to that group. McKinsey has about 3,500 people building its in-house technology, and an additional 4,000 to 5,000 consultants who lead the technical work from the business side, but don't necessarily have technical expertise.
Essentials for skill improvement
The consulting talent landscape has been in flux since the pandemic, with surging demand prompting top firms to aggressively increase headcount. As that boom passed and demand for advisory work slowed, many firms found themselves overstaffed, leading to attrition and a more selective approach to hiring.
The traditional pyramid model built on large groups of junior consultants is beginning to be recalibrated as markets shift and companies focus more on value-providing roles than on talent. The rise of AI has further sharpened that focus, prompting companies to invest heavily in upskilling their existing workforce.
“Everyone is considering the fact that AI has exploded,” Saurabh Sarbariya, AI lead at PwC, told Business Insider.
“The demand for people who can use AI within companies is only increasing, but there is a shortage of experts, so we need to focus on upskilling existing employees,” he said.
KPMG tax interns receive AI training at Lake House, KPMG's training facility in Florida. Polly Thompson
At KPMG, Sam Glode, the firm's globally trusted AI leader, said he is prioritizing upskilling over hiring.
“There are no major changes in our workforce,” Glode said. “It’s just a focus on upskilling, literacy and learning.”
EY is taking a similar approach, prioritizing the AI capabilities of its workforce, Imgard Nordin Ten Cate, EY's global talent acquisition leader, told Business Insider.
In October, EY held a two-week learning event to teach employees how to build AI agents for use in daily work. The company also offers 15-hour courses on topics such as AI engineering, applied AI, and AI compliance.
Simon Brown, global learning and development leader at EY, said nearly 100,000 employees, or about a quarter of the company's workforce, earned a digital “AI badge” after completing one of the courses. He added that the effort is “an incredible way to build deep knowledge about AI at scale.”
May not require technical skills
Technologist roles are in high demand, but when companies hire consultants, don't expect a team of hoodie-wearing Silicon Valley types. Most of the industry will still be generalists with great problem-solving and communication skills who will probably show up in a suit.
Even though companies are hiring more engineers, most consulting jobs still don't require deep engineering expertise. Traditional consulting jobs at top companies are still on the rise, rising from 250,000 in 2022 to 340,000 in 2024, according to Revelio Labs.
“Over-engineering solutions for clients won’t work because many of them are still just dipping their toes into the AI pond,” said De Geyter, former AI lead at Deloitte US. “Having someone help us set up the right data governance is really helpful because it allows us to be ready for AI solutions in the future.”
AI has exploded,” Saurabh Sarbariya, AI lead at PwC, told Business Insider. Jack Taylor/Getty Images
A senior software engineer at Deloitte, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, told Business Insider that while the technical literacy of most employees is improving, it is still in the “very early stages.”
“They want someone who knows the internals of how these black box models work and who can leverage them quickly for a specific set of solutions rather than someone who can train them themselves,” the official said.
Still, they warned that there were strategic risks to current skill levels, saying: “We cannot continue this for too long.”
Jim Rowan, head of AI at Deloitte US, told Business Insider that the company's employees “have the latest technology and certifications to effectively operate the machines and drive even more impactful business outcomes for our clients.” In addition to hiring more data engineers and data technicians, Deloitte is “aggressively investing” in upskilling its workforce, Rowan said.
Soft skills still matter
Multiple leaders told Business Insider that soft skills are becoming more important as AI can now perform certain quantitative tasks.
KPMG's Niall Cleoberry said: “When you're asked what you're looking for in a job, the most important thing is actual attitude.'' Communication, collaboration and agile learning (“things that AI can't really do”) are the distinguishing qualities, he said.
McKinsey is Kate Smaje, global leader for technology and AI at McKinsey, said they are still recruiting undergraduates, MBAs and PhDs on college campuses.
McKinsey emphasizes problem-solving judgment, conceptual thinking, resilience, and the ability to learn quickly in our selection process.
The core leadership qualities of relationship building and emotional intelligence, along with what you can do analytically, are the “fairy dust” that will set you apart, Smaje says.
“What we really want is people who are voracious learners, people who are curious about the world and have the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn,” she said. “Those are the people we really want.”
Any tips? Contact these reporters by email. pthompson@businessinsider.com and lvaranasi@businessinsider.com; or in Polly_Thompson.89 and lvaranasi.70's Signal. Use a personal email address, non-work WiFi network, and non-work device. here is our guide Share information securely.
